Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
Well thats a surprise, the Aus govt supervised tests mysteriously found a whole lot more covid cases than the indian ones did.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-15/ … /100141594
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
So in Army of the Dead, the city of Vegas gets taken out by a Zombie Apocalypses. 635,000 people live in Vegas today. That means COVID-19 in the U.S. is the equivalent to one localized Zombie Apocalypse.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

I saw a clip of that movie. There was a zombie tiger and the zombies could use kung fu and operate elevators? What a zombie movie.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
Speaking of zombies it seems India's cases and deaths are about 10x whats really being reported.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

I remember this popping up in April in pandemic/poverty porn pieces. 10x is massive. Does it hold up to scrutiny? Certainly I could believe that India's bureaucratic engine is having trouble keeping up with records for its population. ~1x reported still awful and grim, ~2x maybe believable. But 10x? I hope not. Almost seems intended to stir up panic, clicks and international rubbernecking.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
https://www.reuters.com/world/india/ind … 021-05-19/

I did find an article by Indian journalists who toured multiple hospitals and cremation sites who found gross under-reporting.

4,000 people die on an average day in India, if it were 8,000 you'd think it would be manageable.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

Got my second Pfizer today. Been about two hours so far, not feeling sore like I did last time. Waited 15 minutes after for obs. and then did some in-store shopping for another 15.

A friend of mine in the area said he had a day or two of fever and I think headaches/tiredness for his second, not sure what else. He's prone to headaches/tiredness in the best of times though.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
I didn't feel like crap until the morning on my second shot. A Tylenol took care of it though.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

I can probably do without. I don't think acetaminophen will interfere much with a strong immune response, but I want this to be as effective as it can get. Feeling the beginnings of soreness start to develop now, at that point where it isn't painful but you're aware of its presence. I hope that'll peak around bedtime like the first dose.
pirana6
Go Cougs!
+682|6261|Washington St.
I spent the day of my #2 shot drinking a liter of low-sodium V8.
Not sure if it helped or did nothing, but the day after I had very few side effects and worked a full 8. My two cents.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
How does low sodium V8 taste? The saltiness of V8 is a big part of the appeal.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
pirana6
Go Cougs!
+682|6261|Washington St.
Fine, nothing special.
I feel like I get enough sodium elsewhere so I can drink that and feel good about myself, even though its probably got 300% of my daily sugar or something.

I typically eat less salt than most people so the low-sodium version is probably normal for me.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

V8 tastes really salty to me. Low-sodium V8 still tastes salty. You could probably use either one in a drink mix.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
I think I drank about a gallon of tomato juice in an 8hr stopover in hong kong.

I turned out OK.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
A bunch of vaccinated fellow Broadway dancers are calling out sick today. Either another COVID variant is finally here or the Zombie apocalypse is upon us.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
So how about the story that Wuhan lab workers were sick in hospital November 2019?

Also fuck, this thing has been going 18 months now, could easily be another 18 months, probably longer.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

I don't get how some people can pull off the mental gymnastics necessary enough to credit China with inventing the superplague on one hand, yet denying that COVID-19 is real on the other. The bridge is definitely out between a few of those neurons.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3690
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia drew a rare condemnation on Tuesday from the top House Republican for the latest in a series of comments she has made comparing mask and vaccine mandates to the treatment of Jews by Nazis during the Holocaust.

In a series of posts on Twitter, Ms. Greene,  a right-wing provocateur who previously endorsed a series of violent and racist conspiracy theories, has railed against decisions made by private businesses to impose vaccine mandates or drop mask requirements only for vaccinated individuals. Her comments came amid an uptick in anti-Semitic attacks on Jews across the nation.

“Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s forced Jewish people to wear a gold star,” she wrote in one post on Tuesday.

In another, referring to a university barring unvaccinated students from attending classes in person, she wrote: “It appears Nazi practices have already begun on our youth. Show your VAX papers or no in person class for you. This is exactly what I was saying about the gold star."
I don't think she understands that the Jews didn't want to wear yellow stars.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

So the topic of covid vaccines came up the other day in a game server somewhat organically. Got to hear the scattered thoughts of someone, which I will summarize in bullet points:

  • "i haven't gotten the flu shot or the flu decades. my sister gets vaccinated did and she feels sick after each one."
  • (on covid vaxxines being scheduled and people's experience with them), "i'll let other people be the guinea pig."
  • (irt reasoning that weighing the risks of vaccine side effects vs. the risks of viral infection), "i think the numbers are grossly exaggerated and not as many people are as affected by the virus as reported."
  • (irt my careful, polite retort of having lost family, not hinting at personal resentment against all the liedemic/plandemic stuff due to not wanting to sour one of my games or with this player who is otherwise gotten along with easily), "i'm sorry for your loss, i lost people too." ()
  • "it only seems to affect unhealthy people anyway. people die all the time in car accidents and stuff." (flashbacks to jay)


It was at this point, before I could finish writing that healthy people are also hospitalized and killed, that one of the players reasonably asked that the conversation be dropped, which everyone did with no argument. Falling in line with the unwritten server rules about things like politics and keeping in-game chat off of general stuff in the orbit of religion/politics that break "escapism" from news/irl stuff or whatever.

"I lost people to the virus but it really isn't that bad you guys." Huh? Is it just that they lost older family and refuse to believe stories of healthy people succumbing? Quite a few stunning twists and turns there. It would be interesting to know which state or country they come from so I could have a better picture of their influences. Maybe I'll ask sometime on the discord. They were open to continuing there, but I think it would be a dead end thing to fire up again.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

One concession I can make in all this is I don't blame people for caution around mRNA vaccines. Facebook rumors have embedded themselves into the DNA of occasional mainstream reporting, so every few myth vs. fact pieces on the subject, there's an interview with some specialist who suggests danger for the human genetic code. Comments range from people who don't want to become a GMO to concerns about how the vaccine going to kill old people by the truckload (maybe cause & effect issue, old person dies of some other cause and people think it must have been the vaccine).

I'm not a genetic biologist so this stuff is not something I feel comfortable explaining scientifically beyond a handful of key points as I understand them. I can refer concerned friends/family to publications not from the yellow press, though.

I think I could be confident in advising people to avoid the actually mutagenic vaccine from TGRI. I imagine some people wouldn't mind becoming a velociraptor, but that most people would rather not. It would be tempting to roll that one out if I was a malicious facebook troll. While frightened chainmail swapped between uncles and grandmas with Ninja Turtle lore would be kind of funny from a certain standpoint, I'm afraid it would just damage vaccines among people already disinclined. Joke-in-origin stuff has definitely spooked people before. I remember getting chainmail about the scary, new (fake) spider in Washington. Of course I was the butthead in pointing out it wasn't real.
uziq
Member
+492|3422
mRNA is one of the great medical breakthroughs of the last decade. it could potentially cure things as diverse as AIDS and malaria in a fairly simple stroke.

give me all the mRNA, stem cells and CRISPR shit you can. medical breakthroughs are one of the very best frontiers of science.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

Also hook me up with GMO agriculture custom tailored to survive better in our changing climate.

This stuff stirs the sci-fi nerd in me. There's also a lot of potential down the road with the mRNA stuff for gradually eradicating viruses that cause the common cold. I don't think concerns about attenuating our immune systems if we eliminate disease entirely are fully justified. We could probably make it stronger than it ever was in history. I've got high hopes.

It's still an interesting thought to me, whether or not you retain the same stream of existence if your consciousness is moved to a machine or a biological machine. I tend to think if you are copied, then no. But if you are gradually integrated into a machine brain, then it could perhaps be seamless transition little different than the body replacing cells.

I think a more practical solution though would be to simply optimize the human body to reduce or ultimately eliminate genetic decomposition and enhance tissues regeneration.
uziq
Member
+492|3422
i was reading something the other day, that  it has taken 27 leading medical/research institutions something like 3 decades to map the brain of a maggot.

we don't know anything about consciousness or brain science, really; and what breakthroughs we have made have been stochastic and incidental. most mainstream medications used for brain disorders or mental illnesses today, or which have given us some insight into consciousness, were literally invented for something else (an early anti-histamine treatment becoming anti-depressants; LSD as a cardiac medication).

even the notion that memory can be 'physically' transferred is hugely problematic. any sort of machine or computer metaphor for the brain tends to confirm the models and biases of the age rather than any reality of 'mind' in-itself. the brain is not a mushy computer. i'm pretty sure the same article i was reading mentioned this experiment that two computer scientists did in the 1980s on an early SNES or amiga processor. they adopted a 'lesions' model, analogous to brain injuries, to sever certain connections in the (rather rudimentary) processor. by this way they hoped to discover and infer what each part 'did'. the experiment was a total failure. and yet our best guess as to how different parts of the brain interact, to this day, is via lesions, injuries, and vivisections.

Last edited by uziq (2021-05-25 20:40:49)

unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

It's bigly optimistic to think we're very close to a lot of that futuristic Star Trek stuff. Barring some miracle development, even people born in recent decades and to come will be old and gone before a lot of that stuff is made reality. But I still like letting my imagination run wild with it.

In purely hypothetical terms, I would feel better with the continuity of having my mind make connections into an expansion rather than have a backup copy put on ice and then activated if the old one dies. It's not really a decision people alive today are likely to have to make. If it flashed into existence today, I could just picture there being some level of religious objection and terrorism against brain clinics or whatever.

It's fascinating stuff to me. I'd like a more intricate understanding about what we currently know than I do, but my college experience is computer electronics and graphics design. I could work my own way up but without formal education I'd still consider myself rather lay on the subject. The steep paywall for a lot of material is also frustrating.

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